Tall, elegant and with striking blond hair, Aimee Mann makes an unlikely harbinger of music-industry doom. She ought to be an A&R man's dream; as indeed she was, from fronting Eighties pop group 'Til Tuesday though to early solo records Whatever and I'm With Stupid. Trouble emerged with recordings for her third album. Record company execs asked Mann to return to the studio to provide them with a hit. Instead, she walked out and found sanctuary with film-maker Paul Thomas Anderson, who used her songs to inspire his hit movie Magnolia.Live At St. Ann's Warehouse
Offering up songs from all four of her post-'Til Tuesday albums, the tracks on Live at St. Ann's Warehouse mimic the surfaces of Aimee's studio arrangements, but while the band sounds tight, confident, and professional, it also adds a welcome dose of fire and muscle to the songs (especially guitarist Julian Coryell and drummer John Sands), and though Aimee maintains her trademark cool as vocalist, she certainly digs deeper into a her emotional well here than she does in the studio. Beyond two news songs which are expected to be on Aimee Mann's next studio set ("King of the Jailhouse" and "Going Through the Motions"), there aren't a whole lot of surprises in the set list, but as a "best of Aimee Mann live" disc, this just about hits the bull's-eye. Live at St Ann's Warehouse offers up some great songs delivered with the skill and conviction they fully deserve, and if you're already a fan, this is a great souvenir of Aimee's skills in concert, and beginners may well be surprised at the wit and emotional range of this performance. [This edition of Live at St. Ann's Warehouse is a two-disc set, featuring a 13-song audio CD and a DVD shot with a nine-camera setup at the same shows which features three additional tunes; it's packaged in a CD-sized "jewel case," while a DVD-sized "amaray case" version with identical content is also available.]